THE  DISTINCTIVE 
AIMS  of  the  ETHICAL 
CULTURE  SCHOOLS 


Four  Addresses  Delivered  Before 
the  Teachers  of  the  Schools 

By  DR.  FELIX  ADLER 


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The  Distinctive  Aims  of  the  Ethical 

Culture  Schools 


FOUR  ADDRESSES 


Delivered  Before  the  Teachers  of 


the  Schools 


By 

DR.  FELIX  ADLER 


THE  SOCIETY  FOR  ETHICAL  CULTURE  OF  NEW  YORK 


1902 


\ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/distinctiveaimsoOOadle 


I  70 

AW  'A  a 


Distinctive  Aims  of  the  Kthical  Culture  Schools 

FIRST  ADDRESS 

Not  Character  Building  in  General  but  a  Specific  Type  of  Character 


FROM  the  papers  containing  the 
teachers’  observations  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  ethical  training  and  its 
problems,  it  would  appear  that  the  point 
upon  which  their  minds  are  chiefly  ex¬ 
ercised  is  whether  ethical  teaching  can 
be  systematically  done  or  whether  it  can 
be  done  only  incidentally.  It  may  be 
admitted  that  the  dangers  of  systematic 
ethical  instruction  are  great,  but  they 
are  overbalanced  by  its  advantages.  This 
problem,  however,  must  be  dealt  with 
later.  The  purpose  of  the  present  ad¬ 
dress  is  to  outline  the  distinctive  aim  of 
the  Ethical  Culture  Schools ;  and  this  is 
necessary  because,  with  the  enlargement 
and  improvement  of  the  Society’s 
Schools  that  will  come  with  the  occupa¬ 
tion  of  the  new  School  Building,  it  be¬ 
comes  increasingly  important  that  the 
teachers  should  be  sympathetic  with  the 
general  aims  and  spirit  of  the  Schools. 

When  the  Schools  were  started 
twenty-three  years  ago,  there  were  very 
few  good  training  schools  in  the  country, 
and  hence,  only  few  good  craftsmen  to 
choose  from ;  and  it  was  technical  skill 
that  was  first  of  all  sought  in  selecting 
teachers.  Now,  however,  there  are  many 
good  craftsmen  available,  and  the  Society 

*  Addresses  given  before  the  teachers  of  the 
schools  by  Dr.  Felix  Adler.  The  first,  second 
and  third  are  given  in  abstract,  the  fourth  in 
full. 


may  therefore  select  from  them  those 
who  are  in  sympathy  with  its  ideal.  This 
does  not  mean  that  its  teachers  are  to 
subscribe  to  creed;  but  that  they  should 
know  what  the  aims  of  the  Society  are, 
and  how  it  proposes  to  embody  these 
aims,  and  that  they  should  consider  care¬ 
fully  whether  they  are  sufficiently  in  sym¬ 
pathy  with  these  to  be  able  to  work 
heartily  for  their  advancement. 

An  impression  that  quite  commonly 
prevails  is  that  the  Schools  can  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  having  a  dis¬ 
tinctive  aim.  Assuming  that  the  aim 
may  be  stated  as  that  of  character-build¬ 
ing,  it  is  said  that  this  is  virtually  the 
aim  of  all  good  schools.  To  which  the 
answer  must  be  made  that  the  aim  of 
our  Schools  is  not  character-building  in 
general.  This  phrase,  now  so  widely 
current  in  the  educational  world,  is  so 
vague  in  meaning  that  it  tells  us  very 
little  as  to  the  definite  aims  and  true 
spirit  of  any  school  that  adopts  it. 
“Character”  must  be  interpreted ;  for 
there  are  many  types  of  it.  For  example, 
there  is  the  ideal  of  the  “Christian  gen¬ 
tleman”  (using  both  these  terms  in  their 
customary  and  literal  sense),  which  pre¬ 
vails  at  such  a  school  as  Groton.  There 
is  the  ideal  which  the  Jesuit  Schools 
work  out  so  efficiently ; — the  ideal  of 
absolute  obedience  to  authority.  Our 
School  stands  for  neither  of  these.  Nor 


4 


does  it  stand  for  the  vague  eclecticism 
which  combines  ten  or  a  dozen  ideas 
like  honesty,  truthfulness,  etc.  If 
this  were  all  that  is  meant  by  the 
phrase  “Ethical  Culture,”  those  who  ad¬ 
vocate  incidental  instead  of  direct  and 
systematic  instruction  in  ethics  would 
probably  be  right. 

The  School  stands  at  once  for  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  a  distinctive  kind  of  char¬ 
acter  and  a  specific  kind  of  culture.  It 
does  not  stand  as  Harvard  does  for  cos¬ 
mopolitan  culture,  nor  as  Yale  does  for 
a  robust  democratic  spirit,  nor,  as  some 
of  the  Western  universities  do,  for  readi¬ 
ness  or  alertness.  All  these  ideals  of 
character  and  culture  imply  the  prepar¬ 
ing  of  the  individual  to  fit  into  a  given 
social  environment.  The  ideal  of  the 
School  is  not  the  adaptation  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  to  the  existing  social  environ¬ 
ment  ;  it  is  to  develop  persons  who  will 
be  competent  to  change  their  environ¬ 
ment  to  greater  conformity  with  moral 
ideals ;  that  is,  to  put  it  boldly,  to  train 
reformers.  But  this  must  be  rightly  un¬ 
derstood.  By  “reformers”  are  meant 
persons  who  believe  that  their  salvation 
consists  in  reacting  beneficently  upon 
their  environment.  This  ideal  of  bene¬ 
ficent  activitv,  beneficent  transformation 
of  faulty  environment,  is  the  ideal  of  the 
Society  and  of  the  School.  This,  then, 
is  what  is  meant  by  character-building. 

There  are  four  corollaries  that  result 
from  this  position : 

i.  Children  must  be  protected  from 
the  debasing  influences  of  their  city  en¬ 
vironment  —  commercialism,  luxurious¬ 
ness,  pleasure-seeking,  sensuousness, 
etc.  We  are  dealing  with  children  who 


are  not  to  be  sent  from  home: — the  pa¬ 
rent  is  not  to  give  way  to  the  boarding- 
school  teacher.  The  children  must  be 
given  a  protected  environment  at  home. 
This  is  the  real  reason  for  the  new  build¬ 
ing,  which  is  to  create  the  right  kind  of 
environment  for  our  children  during  a 
considerable  portion  of  their  day. 

2.  Children  are  to  be  developed  into 
duly  conservative  men  and  women.  The 
unbalanced  reformer  is  most  harmful. 
The  lessons  of  history,  especially  of  his¬ 
tory  taught  from  the  standpoint  of  evo¬ 
lution,  should  give  this  balance.  The 
idea  of  evolution  should,  in  fact,  be  ap¬ 
plied  to  all  branches  of  study,  so  that  the 
history  of  every  subject  as  well  as  the 
subject  itself  is  to  be  taught. 

3.  Children  should  be  so  taught  that 
they  get  an  enthusiasm  for  progress. 
They  should  come  to  know  of  the  human 
sweat  and  toil  by  which  alone  progress 
has  been  secured.  (This  may  be  com¬ 
bined  with  point  two  under  the  general 
statement  that  the  idea  of  evolution 
should  be  applied  both  to  the  material 
and  the  spiritual  elements  in  progress.) 

4.  The  School  should  develop  men  and 
women  who  have  a  reasoned-out  ideal  of 
progress.  Hence  the  necessity  of  sys¬ 
tematic  ethical  instruction ;  for  the  mere 
study  of  history  will  not  accomplish  this. 
There  is  need  for  objective  ideals,  work¬ 
ing  hypotheses  of  conduct.  The  question 
is  raised  immediately  whether  these 
ideals  are  to  be  taught  dogmatically. 
The  answer  must  be  negative ;  the  teach¬ 
ing  must  not  be  dogmatic,  for  it  would 
then  interfere  with  personal  liberty.  This 
requires  more  discussion  than  can  be 
given  at  this  meeting. 


5 


SECOND  ADDRESS 
The  School  as  a  Protecting  Environment 


AT  the  last  meeting  it  was  stated 
that  the  purpose  of  the  School  is 
to  train  reformers,  meaning  by 
reformers  persons  who  are  capable  of 
reacting  beneficently  upon  their  environ¬ 
ment;  and  that,  inasmuch  as  the  natural 
environment  is  unfavorable,  the  first  re¬ 
quisite  to  this  end  must  be  the  creation  of 
a  protected  environment.  This  involves 
at  once  the  danger  of  the  School’s  antag¬ 
onizing  the  home;  for  the  home  condi¬ 
tions  are  often  unfavorable.  The  harm¬ 
ful  influences  must  be  counteracted,  but 
in  such  a  way  that  the  home  will  not  be 
antagonized. 

The  chief  faults  of  the  homes  are  lux¬ 
uriousness  and  love  of  pleasure. 

(i.)  Luxuriousness.  To  counteract 
this,  the  School  must  create  an  environ¬ 
ment  favorable  to  simplicity.  It  may  also 
arrange  for  summer  camps,  etc. ;  and  so 
provide  means  by  which  children  of  lux¬ 
urious  homes  may  live  under  very  simple 
or  even  primitive  conditions  during  the 
summer  months. 

(2.)  Love  of  pleasure.  Even  when 
this  pleasure  is  of  the  more  refined  sort, 
love  of  pleasure  for  its  own  sake  is  dan¬ 
gerous. 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  the 
“New  Education,” — the  School  therefore, 
as  well  as  the  home, — is  not  at  fault  in 
this  matter.  It  is  quite  possible  to  inter¬ 
pret  the  doctrine  of  interest  upon  which 
the  New  Education  lays  such  stress  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  it  mean  entertain¬ 
ment,  amusement ;  and  so  to  introduce  in¬ 
to  the  school  itself  this  very  pleasure-seek¬ 
ing  which  the  school  should  guard 
against.  Interest  may  well  be  utilized  to 
arouse  the  pupil’s  power  to  start  with ; 


then,  however,  he  should  learn  to  use  his 
powers  to  work  for  work’s  sake ;  to  grind, 
whether  he  finds  it  pleasant  or  unpleas¬ 
ant,  and  without  new  interests  being  con¬ 
tinually  supplied.  When  he  has  finished 
his  work  there  is  again  interest  or  pleas¬ 
ure, — the  pleasure  of  achievement. 
There  should  thus  be  a  balance  between 
pleasure  and  drudgery.  Some  strenu¬ 
ousness,  and  a  due  insistence  upon  the 
adequate  performance  of  assigned  tasks 
within  the  time  allotted  for  them,  are  ab¬ 
solutely  necessary  to  preserve  power  and 
virility.  Laxness  here  means,  again,  that 
the  school  falls  in  with  the  pleasure-seek¬ 
ing  tendencies  of  the  time,  instead  of 
standing  firm  against  them.  To  train  re¬ 
formers,  then,  (in  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  has  been  employed)  means  protect¬ 
ing  the  young  through  the  School  envir¬ 
onment  and  influence  against  the  evils 
of  luxuriousness  and  pleasure-seeking. 

Our  main  idea  of  training  men  and 
women  who  shall  transform  their  envir¬ 
onment  seems  to  be  a  novel  and  radical 
one.  Thus,  Dr.  Butler  said  lately  that 
the  purpose  of  the  New  Education  is  to 
produce  men  and  women  who  can  ad¬ 
just  themselves  to  their  environment. 

The  Ethical  School  idea  includes  this, 
but  it  considers  this  adjustment  to  be  the 
means,  not  the  end ;  the  end  being  the  re¬ 
adjustment  of  the  environment. 

The  next  question  is  whether  the  chil¬ 
dren  in  the  school  should  become  con¬ 
scious  of  this  ideal — whether  they  should 
think  of  the  school,  in  short,  as  an  elite 
school — not,  of  course,  in  the  sense  in 
which  West  Point  or  Harvard  or  Yale 
or  select  schools  for  the  wealthy  are  elite ; 
but  elite  in  the  sense  of  standing  for  the 


6 


principle  of  self-consecration  to  an  ideal. 
The  clanger  in  arousing  this  conscious¬ 
ness  lies  in  the  possibility  of  its  leading  to 
an  “I  am-holier-than-thou”  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  pupils.  This  is  probably  not  a 
serious  danger,  and  on  the  whole  it  seems 
probable  that  this  elite  idea,  as  interpret¬ 
ed  above,  is  the  one  that  will  help  most 
,in  accomplishing  the  purposes  of  the 
School.  It  is  the  simple  fact  that  the 
School  was  founded,  and  has  been  and  is 
supported,  by  people  devoted  to  this  ethi¬ 
cal  ideal.  The  pupils  should  know  this ; 
indeed,  they  have  no  right  to  be  in  the 
School  at  all  if  they  do  not  believe  in  its 
purposes. 

It  may  be  well  to  assume  a  purely  hy¬ 
pothetical  case :  Suppose  a  pupil  to  say, 
"Yes,  I  understand  that  the  School  is  to 
train  reformers,  but  I  don’t  want  to  be 
one.”  The  reply  with  which  he  should 
be  met  will  involve  the  doctrine  of  elec¬ 


tion : — "It  is  not  a  question  of  willing¬ 
ness  ;  you  have  no  choice.  As  soon  as  a 
new  ideal  has  been  presented  to  you  and 
you  have  recognized  it  as  higher  than  the 
one  you  have  already,  you  are  already 
elected  to  be  a  follower  of  that  ideal.” 

It  thus  appears  that  the  environment  of 
the  School  must  be  a  protected  environ¬ 
ment,  if  it  is  to  keep  its  bargain  with  its 
founders ;  and  that  the  elite  idea  will  be 
helpful  if  it  means  to  the  pupils  responsi¬ 
bilities  rather  than  privileges.  If  the 
School  is  thoroughly  permeated  with 
these  ideals,  evils  must  disappear. 

The  final  point  to  be  made  in  the  dis¬ 
cussion  of  this  corollary  is  that  to  carry 
out  this  plan  of  a  protected  environment, 
the  School  should  have  a  larger  part  of 
the  time  of  the  pupils  under  its  immediate 
control ;  and  this  will  be  possible  in  the 
new  building. 


THIRD  ADDRESS 

Developing  Enthusiasm  for  Moral  Progress 


IT  should  be  stated  once  more  that  the 
object  of  education  is  not  to  develop 
the  ability  to  adjust  oneself  to  envir¬ 
onment,  but  rather  the  ability  to  change 
environment,  that  is,  in  other  words,  to 
forward  the  progress  of  the  world. 

We  have  next  to  consider  how  we  are 
to  create  enthusiasm  for  this  progress, 
and  a  desire  to  contribute  to  it?  Not  by 
preaching,  which  is  largely  an  appeal  to 
feeling,  and  hence  not  likely  to  produce 
a  lasting  effect ;  not  on  the  other  hand,  by 
an  appeal  to  the  intellect  alone,  for  this 
also  is  likely  not  to  result  in  anything 
permanent.  The  end  must  be  compassed 
by  pedagogical  methods ;  class-room  in¬ 
struction  is  necessarv.  This  instruction 


should  evoke  and  emphasize  the  idea  of 
evolution  or  development — perhaps  "de¬ 
velopment”  is  the  better  word,  since  "evo¬ 
lution”  is  so  closely  associated  with  the 
theory  of  Herbert  Spencer.  Thus,  in 
teaching  science,  for  example,  not  only 
facts  and  laws  but  the  history  (in  outline 
only)  of  the  growth  of  this  knowledge 
should  be  taught.  In  this  way  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  finality  which  naturally  attaches 
itself  to  text-books  will  be  removed ;  and 
pupils  will  come  to  see  how  long  is  the 
procession  of  those  by  whom  this  knowl¬ 
edge  has  been  built  up;  and  to  feel  that 
they  are  called  upon  to  form  a  part  of  it. 
They  should  be  given  a  glimpse  of  the 
dawn  of  civilization :  and  realizing  the 


7 


length  of  the  march  from  then  to  now, 
should  get  the  idea  of  progress,  of  move¬ 
ment,  of  the  whole  world  moving.  The 
teacher  of  natural  science  has  especially 
good  opportunities  for  bringing  out  this 
idea. 

In  manual  training,  again,  while  the 
immediate  aim  is  to  develop  manual  skill, 
there  is  here  also  the  opportunity  to  give 
the  child  an  epitomized  history  of  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  ‘  industry.  The  industrial 
museum  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  curios¬ 
ity,  but  an  illustration  of  industrial  de¬ 
velopment. 

In  art,  the  development  of  art  and  what 
it  has  meant  in  the  history  of  various  peo¬ 
ples  may  be  shown.  Literature,  too,  is 
particularly  well  adapted  to  this  kind  of 
treatment,  exhibiting,  as  it  does,  the  de¬ 
veloping  ideals  of  humanity. 

But  the  most  important  of  all  subjects 
in  illustrating  this  idea  is  history.  The 
central  idea  here  is  that  of  Froebel,  i.  e. 
to  make  the  child  acquainted  both  with 
nature  and  with  humanity.  The  clue  that 
is  followed,  though  not  too  strictly,  is 
that  of  the  sequence  of  the  seasons. 
There  are  seasonal  races,  the  Eskimos 
illustrate  winter,  the  Hindoos  summer, 
and  so  on.  The  object  of  this  is  to  make 
the  child  acquainted  with  the  human  race 
as  one,  despite  differences.  In  the  higher 
grades,  the  idea  is  to  show  what  other  na¬ 
tions  have  to  do  with  our  own.  This  is 
done  by  taking  the  best  types  of  each,  so 
that  the  children  may  have  a  few  great 
names  and  personalities  flashing  into 
their  lives,  and  thus  get  the  idea  of  hu¬ 
manity  as  well  as  that  of  the  nation.  The 
teacher  of  history  should  show  what  each 
nation  has  contributed  to  the  progress  of 
the  race,  starting  with  the  early  civiliza¬ 
tions,  with  Persia  perhaps,  and  coming 
down  to  the  present  time  and  the  idea  of 
democracy.  They  should  now  be  brought 
to  ask,  What  is  the  aim  of  Democracy? 
What  has  it  done?  What  is  left  for  it 


to  clo?  They  should  eventually  be 
brought  to  see  that  there  are  two  great 
problems  awaiting  solution:  i.  How  to 
make  the  best  men  rulers  and  leaders ; 
and  2.  How  to  bring  about  Aristotle’s 
idea  of  securing  the  best  life  to  each  citi¬ 
zen?  We  do  not  yet  know,  apparently, 
what  the  best  life  is ;  the  majority  seem 
to  define  it  as  the  life  of  material  ease,  or 
of  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  which  is  a 
fatal  mistake.  It  should  be  defined  as 
the  pursuit  of  perfection. 

By  these  means,  then,  boys  and  girls 
may  be  brought  to  see  how  progress  has 
come  about,  and  how  long  it  takes  for  a 
single  new  idea  to  establish  itself.  Thus, 
they  will  become  duly  conservative,  while 
animated  by  the  idea  of  continuous 
change  in  the  direction  of  progress. 

History  is  the  most  important  aid  of 
ethics.  It  is  not  simply  a  study  of  causes : 
that  is  too  difficult  for  children.  Neither 
is  it  merely  scientific  history,  for  knowl¬ 
edge  alone  is  not  sufficient.  The  aim  is 
rather  to  get  a  few  large  results,  to  see 
the  light  upon  a  few  of  the  peaks  of  hu¬ 
man  progress.  It  is  impossible  to  follow 
every  step  in  the  development  of  the  race ; 
the  facts  are  not  known.  We  can  only 
pick  out  the  things  that  are  of  greatest 
value. 

It  is  possible  that  the  high  school 
course  may  become  lengthened  to  five  or 
six  years,  preparing  students  to  .enter  the 
junior  year  in  college;  in  that  case  it  will 
be  possible  to  go  into  details ;  but  in  the 
elementary  school  it  is  possible  only  to 
lay  foundations. 

The  words  “reform”  and  “reformer” 
should  probably  not  be  used  in  all  this 
effort  to  create  reformers.  The  child  is 
to  absorb  at  first ;  to  get  things  by  con¬ 
tagion,  through  example.  He  should  be 
brought  into  admiring  relations  with  men 
and  women  who  have  caused  progress. 
Full  reflective  consciousness  comes  later. 
The  elementary  school  should  cultivate 


8 


love  of  humanity  and  of  the  nation.  If  tne  narrow,  jingo  patriotism  that  is  so 
humanity,  if  the  race-idea  is  emphasized  false  and  harmful, 
as  well  as  the  national  idea,  we  shall  avoid 


FOURTH  ADDRESS 

Incidental  Versus  Systematic  Moral  Teaching 


THE  argument  in  favor  of  inci¬ 
dental  teaching  has  two  sup¬ 
ports.  One  is  the  psychological 
doctrine  of  interest.  Offer  food  to  your 
pupil  when  he  is  hungry.  Strike  when 
the  iron  is  hot,  and  it  will  yield  to  the 
blows  that  are  intended  to  give  it  the 
right  shape.  When  your  pupil  has  come 
into  collision  with  the  moral  law,  when 
his  relations  to  others  are  all  tangled  up, 
when  he  is  bitter,  sore,  confused,  per¬ 
plexed,  bruised, — then  point  out  to  hirn 
the  cause  that  has  produced  this  condi¬ 
tion,  and  take  him  by  the  hand  and  show 
him  the  road  he  must  follow  to  return 
to  a  normal  life.  Can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  a  lesson  imparted  under  such  cir¬ 
cumstances  will  have  the  honest  ring  of 
reality  about  it,  and  will  make  a  per¬ 
manent  impression  ?  This  is  perhaps 
the  main  argument,  on  the  one  side,  and 
I  judge  from  your  papers  that  it  has 
found  favor  with  many  of  you. 

The  other  argument  is  similar,  and  yet 
distinct  from  this  one :  even  the  assim¬ 
ilation  of  knowledge  pure  and  simple,  of 
knowledge  for  the  sake  of  knowing,  can¬ 
not  be  carried  on  to  advantage  unless 
the  appetite  is  sharpened. 

It  is  feared  that  systematic  ethics 
teaching,  which  appeals  largely  to  the 
intellect  at  moments  when  interest  in  the 
subject  taught  is  not  spontaneously 
active,  and  which  offers  directions  for 
the  guidance  of  conduct  in  matters  lying 
outside  the  immediate  experience  of  the 
pupil,  and  which,  therefore,  cannot  be 
immediately  put  into  practice,  will  have 


the  effect  of  weakening  the  'connection 
between  insight  and  conduct,  between 
moral  knowledge  and  the  exemplifica¬ 
tion  of  such  knowledge  in  actual  life ; 
and  will  thus  wound,  if  not  destroy,  the 
morality  of  the  pupil  at  what  is  conceded 
to  be  its  vital  point.  The  foundation  of 
the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  is 
the  formula  of  the  mechanical  equivalent 
of  heat.  A  certain  amount  of  heat  is 
always  convertible  into  an  equivalent 
amount  of  mechanical  energy.  In  the 
realm  of  moral  mechanics  there  seems  to 
be  a  similar  law,  a  similar  relation. 
There  must  be  heat ;  and  how  can  there 
be  heat  without  interest  ?  And  this  heat 
must  be  convertible  into  action.  If  it 
does  not  spend  itself  in  action,  it  is 
worthless.  If  it  means  nothing  more 
than  a  raising  of  the  internal  tempera¬ 
ture,  it  is  like  a  fever,  a  sign  of  moral 
disease  rather  than  of  health. 

I  have  stated  as  fairly  as  I  can  the  two 
arguments  on  which  rests  the  objection 
to  the  systematic  teaching  of  morals.  I 
shall  now  endeavor  to  show,  first,  that 
incidental  Ethics  teaching  is  inadequate, 
and  secondly,  how  systematic  teaching 
may  be  given  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid 
the  evil  effects  above  mentioned. 

Incidental  teaching  is  not  sufficiently 
inclusive,  does  not  cover  the  ground.  It 
is  invaluable  when  opportunities  arise 
that  permit  of  it.  But  these  opportuni¬ 
ties  do  not  arise  often  enough  and  are 
not  varied  enough.  Consider  for  a  mo¬ 
ment  your  own  past  life,  especially  your 
life  in  school.  How  many  occasions 


9 


were  there  when  you  laid  yourself  open 
to  a  deep  and  penetrating  interference 
on  the  part  of  your  teacher  or  your 
elders  ?  These  crises  rarely  occur.  And 
when  they  do  occur,  they  generally  re¬ 
late  to  some  negative  aspect  of  morality. 
There  has  been  some  transgression  of 
the  moral  law,  such  as  cheating  in  class, 
or  a  falsehood,  or  the  defiance  of  the 
teacher’s  authority,  or  a  quarrel  of  a 
more  than  ordinary  kind  between  pupils, 
and  the  like.  The  wise  teacher  or  prin¬ 
cipal  will  use  the  opportunity  to  talk  the 
matter  out  thoroughly  with  the  pupil,  to 
go  into  the  causes  that  have  led  to  the 
present  calamity,  so  as  to  show  him  the 
seriousness  of  the  moral  law  and  to  help 
him  to  an  effort  at  sincere  reform.  But 
there  are  many  pupils  in  whose  school 
life  no  such  critical  moments  arise.  And 
yet  these  pupils  may  be  morally  quite 
unregenerate,  quite  under  the  influence 
of  maxims  of  self-pleasing.  Only,  in 
their  case  there  is  no  eruption  at  the  sur¬ 
face,  and  so  there  will  be  no  occasion 
for  the  beneficent  operation  of  the  kind 
of  incidental  teaching  which  we  here 
have  in  mind.  As  a  rule  there  is  no  op¬ 
portunity  given  to  the  teacher  to  de¬ 
velop  the  ideas  that  underlie  the  duty  of 
reverence  toward  parents,  the  fraternal 
duties,  the  duties  toward  inferiors,  the 
duty  of  the  social  classes  toward  each 
other,  etc.  I  say,  there  is  no  spon¬ 
taneous  or  natural  opportunity  to  dis¬ 
cuss  these  matters  unless  the  opportu¬ 
nity  is  artificially  created ;  and  if  it  is, 
why,  then,  to  that  extent,  we  accept  the 
principle  of  systematic  teaching. 

By  the  incidental  method  we  mean 
waiting  until  something  happens  and 
seizing  the  occasion  to  take  one’s  moral 
bearings,  to  show  the  punitive  and 
other  moral  forces  that  are  implicated  in 
what  has  happened.  But  I  contend  that, 
if  we  want  to  be  strictly  true  to  the  in¬ 
cidental  method,  we  shall  fail  to  educate 


the  moral  nature  of  our  pupils  because 
there  is  not  enough  that  happens  in  this 
incidental  fashion.  And  that  which  hap¬ 
pens  generally  has  to  do  with  the  nega¬ 
tive  aspect  of  morality  rather  than  with 
the  aspect  of  positive  ideals.  But  it  will 
be  said  that  no  sensible  teacher  would 
content  himself  with  dwelling  merely  on 
the  negative  side  of  duty,  with  showing 
the  obverse  side  of  the  medal  without 
immediately  turning  it  about  and  show¬ 
ing  also  the  reverse  side.  In  a  case 
where  cheating  in  class  has  occurred,  the 
incidental  moral  teaching  would  be  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  wickedness  of  deception 
and  also  with  the  duty  and  excellence  of 
honesty.  If  the  pupil  has  lied,  it  would 
be  explained  to  him,  not  only  why  the 
falsehood  is  detestable,  but  why  veracity 
is  admirable,  etc.  This  is  admitted,  but 
on  the  ground  that  all  virtues  are  mere 
exemplifications  of  a  single  virtuous 
principle,  and  that  they  derive  their  chief 
cogency  from  their  connection  with  one 
another.  I  understand  by  a  positive 
moral  ideal  an  all-embracing  ideal,  a  uni¬ 
fying  principle  which  shall  connect  the 
different  forms  of  virtue  with  one  an¬ 
other.  So  that  the  several  stones  of 
duty,  by  their  pressure  against  one  an¬ 
other,  and  against  the  central  stone 
which  keeps  them  all  in  place,  shall  form 
a  stable  arch  of  duty.  But  the  moral 
truths  which  are  delivered  by  the  in¬ 
cidental  method  are  fragments  which 
the  pupil  does  not  know  how  to  piece 
together.  By  this  method  he  is  moral¬ 
ized  in  spots. 

A  friend  of  mine,  an  artist,  with  an 
artist’s  impatience  of  set  rules  and  any 
sort  of  constraint  that  interferes  with 
individual  liberty,  has  undertaken  to 
apply  the  incidental  method,  in  the  case 
of  his  children,  to  the  teaching  of  read¬ 
ing,  writing,  history,  geography,  and  all 
the  ordinary  branches  of  a  curriculum. 
If  the  child  wants  to  communicate  with 


his  absent  friends,  he  is  informed  that  a 
convenient  way  of  doing  so  is  by  writ¬ 
ing;  and  if  the  spirit  moves  him  suffi¬ 
ciently,  he  learns  to  write.  Stories  are 
read  to  him  and  perhaps  not  finished — I 
am  not  sure  that  this  is  the  way,  but  I 
imagine  it  is — and  he  is  told  that  if  he 
wants  to  know  the  end  of  the  story  he 
must  learn  to  read.  After  he  has  ac¬ 
quired  the  art  of  reading  any  book  that 
happens  to  fall  in  his  way  he  can  dip  into 
and  try  to  master.  Any  subject  of 
knowledge  he  is  at  liberty  to  take  up. 
If  this  desultory  method  is  carried  out 
consistently,  it  must  lead  to  its  inevit¬ 
able  result — a  disordered  mind,  a  smat¬ 
tering  of  many  things  and  real  knowl¬ 
edge  of  nothing;  or  if  the  child  is  excep¬ 
tionally  persistent,  a  condensation  of 
knowledge  at  certain  points,  with  large 
gaps  or  mental  deserts  in  other  places, 
minute,  excessively  detailed  information 
on  some  subjects,  with  an  absence  of 
even  rudimentary  information  on  many 
other  equally  important  subjects. 

Moreover,  if  the  child  is  really  anxious 
to  learn,  it  will  soon  appear  that  the 
desultory  method  must  be  dropped,  and 
the  systematic  method  must  be  resorted 
to.  Suppose  that  the  artist’s  child  men¬ 
tioned  happens  to  be  attracted  by  a  book 
on  astronomy  or  on  political  economy. 
My  own  son,  when  about  twelve  years  of 
age,  was  anxious  to  know  by  what 
means  astronomers  have  been  able  to 
determine  the  distances  of  the  stars  from 
the  earth.  He  was  also  interested  in  the 
silver  question,  which  was  much  talked 
of  at  the  time,  and  wanted  to  discuss  the 
pros  and  cons.  In  such  a  case  as  this, 
we  come  upon  a  fact  fundamental  in  all 
education:  that  there  is  a  certain  order 
in  which  the  conceptions  of  the  human 
mind  have  got  to  be  built  up,  and  that 
it  is  impossible  to  explain  the  concep¬ 
tions  of  a  higher  order  unless  a  founda¬ 


tion  of  the  more  elementary  conceptions 
has  first  been  securely  laid. 

And  this  applies  to  moral  education  as 
well.  And  it  is  the  decisive  reason  why 
the  incidental  method  will  not  serve,  why 
there  must  be  systematic  teaching.  The 
higher  moral  conceptions  presume  the 
lower.  They  cannot  be  rightly  grasped 
before  the  lower  have  been  thoroughly 
assimilated.  And  the  master  who  relies 
entirely  on  incidental  moral  teaching, 
will  find  himself  baffled  in  trying  to  meet 
the  difficulties  of  his  pupil,  just  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  teacher  who  would 
attempt  to  explain  a  difficult  problem  in 
astronomy  or  in  economics,  because  the 
simpler  processes  of  reasoning  have  not 
been  achieved  upon  which  the  cogency 
of  the  more  complex  processes  depends. 
And  if,  in  a  given  case,  he  tries  to  make 
up  for  this  deficiency  by  rapidly  going 
over  the  whale  ground,  he  will  only  be 
doing  hastily  and  unsatisfactorily  that 
which,  in  order  to  be  well  done,  must 
be  the  work  of  years. 

The  incidental  method,  then,  does  not 
cover  the  field,  does  not  furnish  a  unify¬ 
ing  conception,  and  does  not  provide  for 
an  orderly  sequence  in  the  building  up 
of  moral  ideals.  For  these  reasons  it 
must  be  rejected. 

Returning  to  the  systematic  method, 
let  us  now  see  whether  the  objections  to 
that  method  can  be  removed,  and,  if  so, 
by  what  means.  The  chief  objection,  as 
you  will  remember,  is  that  of  breeding 
a  barren  intellectualism,  a  cold,  abstract 
way  of  looking  at  moral  ideals,  and  of 
weakening  the  connection  between  pre¬ 
cept  and  practice.  These  difficulties  can, 
to  a  large  extent,  be  avoided.  First,  by 
the  right  attitude  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher.  He  should  teach  his  subject 
not  only  with  great  warmth  and  earnest¬ 
ness  and  a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  it, 
preparing  his  mind  for  a  moral  lesson 


as  a  clergyman  would  for  a  sermon ;  but 
he  should  be  careful  always  to  impart  to 
his  pupils  the  impression  that  the  per¬ 
formance  of  duty  is  the  greatest  thing  in 
life ;  and  that,  this  being  taken  for 
granted,  the  purpose  of  the  moral  lesson 
is  not  at  all  to  weigh  and  debate  whether 
the  right  is  to  be  done,  but  to  help  us 
to  see  more  clearly  what  is  right,  and 
to  enable  us  more  perfectly  to  do  the 
right.  Just  as  little  as  when  a  ship 
founders  at  sea  there  can  be  any  ques¬ 
tion,  among  the  ship’s  company,  as  to 
whether  they  shall  try  to  reach  the  land, 
but  only  as  to  the  direction  in  which  the 
land  lies,  and  by  what  means — raft  or 
boat — they  may  best  be  able  to  make 
their  way  towards  it ;  so,  in  a  moral  les¬ 
son,  when  in  danger,  as  we  always  are, 
of  foundering  in  a  fluctuating  sea  of  pas¬ 
sion  and  desire,  the  question  cannot  be 
whether  we  wish  to  reach  the  land,  but 
where  it  lies  and  how  to  get  there.  The 
general  presumption  is — and  this  must 
be  kept  prominently  in  view  in  the  man¬ 
ner  in  which  the  teacher  handles  the 
subject — that  there  is  an  object  which 
we  intensely  desire,  and  that  we  are  only 
studying  in  order  to  find  out  how  to 
attain  that  object.  Such  an  infinitely  im¬ 
portant  thing  is  it  to  do  the  right !  Our 
worth  as  human  beings,  the  success  or 
failure  of  our  life,  so  utterly  depends 
upon  this,  that  we  want  to  use  every  pos¬ 
sible  diligence  that  we  may  not  miss  our 
aim.  To  try  to  prove  that  right  doing 
is  the  chief  aim  would  be  preposterous. 
The  conscience  of  the  teacher  speaks. 
The  conscience  of  ‘Mie  pupil  responds. 
(The  difference  between  Ethics  and 
other  subjects  like  Mathematics,  is  not 
that  ethical  laws  are  asserted  dogmatic¬ 
ally,  while  mathematical  truths  can  be' 
proved.  The  pupil  finds  himself  con¬ 
fronted  by  statements  the  truth  of  which 
rests,  in  the  first  instance,  on  the  author¬ 
ity  of  the  adult.  The  pupil  would  not  be 


able  to  see  his  way  to  the  end  of  a  diffi¬ 
cult  geometrical  demonstration  and  de¬ 
cide,  relying  on  his  own  insight,  what 
may  be  the  correct  outcome.  The 
standard  is  set,  the  truth  is  asserted  by 
the  superior  mind  that  has  traveled  over 
the  ground  before  him.  If  he  does  not 
see  it,  it  is  his  fault.  He  must  learn  to 
see  things  as  his  teacher  sees  them.  This 
holds  good  also  m  Ethics.  There  is 
dogmatic  assertion  in  the  first  instance, 
and  verification  afterwards.  The  differ¬ 
ence  between  Ethics  and  Science  lies  in 
the  method  of  verification.) 

Secondly,  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  Eth¬ 
ics  instruction,  is  capable  of  immediate 
application.  When,  for  example,  the 
teacher  speaks  of  the  duties  to  parents, 
— obedience,  reverence, — of  the  signifi¬ 
cance  of  slight  acts  of  loving  service  as 
indicating  a  filial  spirit,  he  will  send  his 
pupils  home,  if  he  be  the  right  kind  of 
teacher,  with  the  determination  to  per¬ 
form  such  acts,  to  render  such  service. 
The  same  applies  to  the  finer  interpre¬ 
tation  of  friendship,  which  is  given  in  the 
ethics  lessons  as  a  standard  by  which 
the  young  people  can  immediately  meas¬ 
ure  their  friendships  with  one  another. 
The  same  is  true,  of  course,  of  the  fra¬ 
ternal  duties,  of  the  duties  of  charity  to 
the  poor,  of  mental  and  moral  charity, 
which  are  successively  taken  up  and  dis¬ 
cussed.  There  is  a  large  stretch  of  the 
road  traveled  by  the  moral  lessons 
which  lies  within  the  range  of  the  pupil’s 
daily  experience,  and  in  regard  to  which 
the  fear  expressed, — that  by  isolating  the 
moral  principles  and  subjecting  them  to 
theoretical  exposition,  the  connection 
between  precept  and  practice  is  broken, 
— is  not  justified,  not  even  relevant. 

Thirdly,  however,  there  are  certain 
duties,  like  the  duties  of  the  citizen  to 
the  State,  the  duties  of  the  various  pro¬ 
fessions  and  vocations,  etc.,  which  lie 
beyond  the  pupil’s  present  range  of  ac- 


tivity,  and  which  yet  stand  out  broadly 
and  conspicuously  in  the  ethical  teach¬ 
ings.  Here  it  seems,  if  anywhere,  the 
reproach  of  pure  theoreticism,  of  pure 
intellectualism,  of  divorcing  precept 
from  practice,  must  apply.  For  the 
pupil  is  not  yet  a  citizen,  and  cannot  per¬ 
form  the  duties  of  citizenship.  He  does 
not  yet  follow  a  vocation  and  perform 
the  duties  of  a  vocation.  Nor,  though 
he  can  perform  individual  acts  of  charity, 
can  he  make  war  against  the  great  social 
evils,  can  he  help  to  elevate  the  working 
class,  or  to  improve  the  treatment  of 
prisoners,  or  mitigate  the  horrors  of 
war.  And  yet  in  our  ethics  lesson,  at 
least  in  the  High  School,  we  call  atten¬ 
tion  from  the  very  outset  to  these  great 
social  evils,  and  we  dwell  upon  the 
achievements  of  men  like  John  Howard 
and  Robert  Owen,  and  of  women  like 
Florence  Nightingale;  and  we  make  a 
great  deal  of  the  duties  of  the  vocations, 
and  of  such  duties  as  the  citizen  owes  to 
the  State. 

Are  we  doing  harm  to  the  pupil  in  ac¬ 
quainting  him,  even  in  some  detail,  with 
the  duties  which  he  is  not  yet  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  to  practice?  We  should  be  doing  him 
harm  if  the  heat  of  interest  or  the  flame 
of  enthusiasm  were  allowed  to  spend 
itself  aimlessly,  if  there  were  no  outlook 
whatever  upon  action,  no  outlet  upon  ac¬ 
tion.  Rut  there  is  an  outlook  upon 
action.  What  we  are  doing  is  to  create 
in  the  pupil  what  may  be  called  hypo¬ 
thetical  resolves, — resolves,  if  certain 
contingencies  arise,  if  certain  opportuni¬ 
ties  present  themselves,  to  act  in  certain 
ways.  What  we  are  doing  is  to  trace 
out,  by  way  of  anticipation,  the  lines  of 
conduct  along  which  the  future  citizen 
and  professional  man  is  to  move,  and 
which,  because  they  have  been  traced 
out  previously,  will  be  lines  of  less  re¬ 
sistance  than  otherwise  they  would  be. 
And,  just  as  in  Nature  there  is  such  a 


thing  as  potential  energy, — that  is, 
energy  which  is  stored  up,  bound  for  the 
time  being,  but  not  the  less  real  on  that 
account,  and  ready  on  occasions  to  vent 
itself  in  the  most  powerful  effects ;  so,  in 
our  ethics  lessons  we  are  storing  up 
potential  moral  energy  which  does  not 
need  to  vent  itself  fully  in  immediate 
action,  which  may  remain  latent  for  a 
season,  and  which,  nevertheless,  when 
the  opportunity  comes,  will  show  its 
reality,  its  effectiveness. 

Nay,  we  may  go  farther  and  say  that, 
even  in  these  cases  where  duty  is  beyond 
the  range  of  the  pupil,  there  is,  all  the 
same,  an  immediate  outlet  in  action  pos¬ 
sible,  namely,  action  in  such  cases  is 
directed  toward  making  preparation  for 
the  discharge  of  duties  later  on.  When 
the  duties  of  the  vocations  have  been  ex¬ 
hibited,  the  impulse  to  action  takes  the 
form  of  enhancing  the  diligence  and  stif¬ 
fening  the  perseverance  of  the  pupil  in 
those  studies  which  will  lead  him  to  his 
chosen  vocation,  so  that  he  may  be  able 
to  conform  to  the  ideal  of  the  physician, 
or  the  teacher  of  religion  which  has  been 
set  before  him.  When  the  duties  of  citi¬ 
zenship  have  been  explained,  the  impulse 
to  action  will  take  the  form  of  stimu¬ 
lating  the  student  to  manifest  at  once,  in 
the  little  school  community  to  which  he 
belongs,  the  same  virtues  of  respect  for 
law,  of  a  disposition  to  make  the  good 
of  each  tributary  to  the  good  of  all, 
and  the  like,  which  are  the  foundation  of 
ethical  relations  in  the  larger  field. 
There  is  no  duty  taught  that  is  not  ap¬ 
plicable  either  directly,  immediately  or 
mediately,  in  the  shape  of  present  prepa¬ 
ration  for  future  fulfillment.  And  thus 
the  main  reproach  against  systematic, 
theoretic,  moral  instruction,  if  the  in¬ 
struction  is  carried  on  by  the  right 
method,  in  the  right  spirit,  falls  to  the 
ground. 


Leading  Ideas  of  Our  System  of  Ethical  Instruction 


A  word  or  two  now  as  to  the  system 
itself  which  underlies  the  moral  teaching 
of  our  school.  I  have  a  few  words  only 
as  to  certain  points.  These,  to  be  prop¬ 
erly  apprehended,  require  to  be  devel¬ 
oped  in  a  full  course  of  lectures  on  the 
subject.  But  a  few  hints,  a  few  glimpses, 
I  should  like  here  to  add.  In  the  Ele¬ 
mentary  School,  the  aim  is,  on  the  whole, 
to  enlarge  the  pupil’s  grasp  on  some  of 
the  essential  moral  facts ;  just  to  put  him 
in  possession  of  the  facts,  without  offer¬ 
ing  him  explanations.  This  is  done  by 
enabling  him  to  enter  vicariously  into 
the  experience  of  others,  be  these  others 
ideal  types  or  historical  personages. 
With  the  help  of  the  Bible  stories,  the 
child’s  range  of  moral  experience  is 
wonderfully  widened.  Especially  the  re¬ 
lations  that  arise  within  the  circle  of  the 
family  are  revealed  to  him  in  some  of 
their  complexities.  The  workings  of 
jealousy,  as  between  brothers,  its  inner 
causes  and  its  ruinous  consequences,  are 
made  clear  to  him  in  the  stories  of  Cain 
and  Abel,  of  Jacob  and  Esau,  of  Joseph 
and  his  brethren. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  chil¬ 
dren’s  minds  are  simple.  On  the  con¬ 
trary,  they  are  often  extremely  complex 
in  their  processes.  The  child  sees  the 
complexities  of  its  own  nature  mirrored 
in  the  complexities  of  the  story,  and  also 
the  solution  of  such  complexities.  The 
child  is  apt  to  realize  in  the  story  of 
Moses  the  inner  experience  of  the 
strong  who  attempt  to  defend  the  weak 
against  their  oppressors,  an  experience 
with  which,  on  account  of  its  own  weak¬ 
ness,  it  is  peculiarly  in  sympathy, 
whether  these  oppressors  be  the  brutal 
shepherds  at  the  well  of  Midian,  or 
Pharaoh  and  his  hosts  oppressing  and 
enslaving  a  whole  people.  The  child  is 
taught  to  realize  the  beauty  of  loyalty 


toward  a  superior,  even  when  that  supe¬ 
rior  is  a  persecutor,  as  in  the  story  of 
Saul  and  David  in  the  cave.  The  child 
is  taught  to  appreciate  voluntary  self- 
sacrifice  in  the  case  of  Ruth  and  Naomi; 
in  the  magnanimous  friendship  between 
the  heir  to  the  throne  and  the  man  who 
is  destined  to  supplant  him ;  in  the  depth 
and  tenderness  and  strength  of  a  father’s 
love  in  the  bitter  lament  of  David  over 
his  rebellious  son.  These  and  other  valu¬ 
able  experiences  are  vicariously  made 
the  property  of  the  pupil  with  the  help 
of  the  Bible  stories ;  experiences  which 
no  incidental  teaching  could  touch  upon, 
because  there  would  probably  be  no  oc¬ 
casion  in  the  life  of  the  pupil  to  refer  to 
them.  His  moral  horizon  is  enlarged. 
His  moral  feelings  are  deepened  and  re¬ 
fined. 

In  the  Hebrew  legislation  many  minor 
points  of  morals  are  cleared  up, — minor, 
as  not  relating  to  the  chief  command¬ 
ments,  but  capital  in  producing  the  right 
set -of  the  will,  the  right  attitude  on  moral 
questions,  the  right  spirit.  Such,  for  in¬ 
stance,  are  the  duty  of  diligence  in 
searching  out  the  owner  of  lost  property, 
of  efforts  to  save  the  imperiled  property 
of  enemies,  of  careful  abstention  from 
acts  which,  in  their  remote  consequences, 
may  cause  damage  to  others,  etc. 

In  the  next  division  of  the  Elementarv 

j 

Course  we  deal  with  the  virtues  that 
emerge  within  the  circumference  of  the 
State.  The  family  is  the  bounding  circle 
in  the  previous  division.  The  State  is 
the  bounding  circle  when  the  instruction 
is  carried  on  in  the  Seventh  and  Eighth 
Grades.  And  here  we  take  as  our  texts 
selected  portions  from  the  history  of 
Greece  and  the  history  of  Rome.  The 
pupil  is  helped  to  realize  how  Greece  was 
well-nigh  suffocated  by  overwhelming 
numbers  during  the  struggle  with  Persia, 


14 


is  made  to  realize  why  it  was  that  a 
handful  prevailed  against  myriads,  what 
great,  inspiring  issues  were  at  stake, — 
democracy  against  imperialism,  the  lib¬ 
erty  of  the  individual  against  centralized 
control,  the  free  development  of  science 
and  art  in  a  free  State  as  against  a  sys¬ 
tem  which  crushes  individuality  and  pre¬ 
vents  therefore  the  highest  Teachings  out 
toward  truth  and  beauty.  And  the  pupil 
is  also  helped  to  realize  the  means  by 
which  this  struggle  was  successfully  car¬ 
ried  on.  And  here  there  is  a  chance 
to  show  how  the  personal  virtues  are 
connected  with  the  interests  of  the  State. 
The  virtue  of  temperance  is  dwelt  upon 
in  connection  with  the  fight  at  Thermo- 
pyle ;  the  intellectual  virtues  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  story  of  the  age  of  Pericles 
and  its  achievements  in  science  and  art ; 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  as 
founded  on  the  acceptance  of  law  in  the 
personal  life,  is  dwelt  upon  as  illustrated 
in  the  life  of  Socrates,  also  the  combined 
dignity  and  humility  of  the  man. 

The  story  of  Rome  brings  out  chiefly 
two  ideas.  Not,  as  in  Greece,  the  inspir¬ 
ing  ends  of  the  State,  which  should  ap- 

t  i 

peal  to  the  citizen  and  lead  him  of  his 
own  accord  to  put  life  and  property  in 
jeopardy  for  its  sake.  But  these  two 
ideas:  first,  the  supereminent  claims  of 
the  State  above  the  claims  of  any  of  the 
lesser  groups  included  within  it,  the 
right  of  the  State  to  crush  .  out 
family  affection  and  individual  warfare  in 
order  to  its  own  perpetuation, — as  in  the 
case  of  Brutus  sentencing  his  own  son, 
of  Coriolanus,  of  the  Horatii,  etc. ;  and, 
secondly,  the  right  of  all  who  are  willing 
to  conform  to  the  requirements  of  the 
State  to  be  included  within  the  domain 
of  citizenship.  Nowhere  else  is  the  right 
of  the  State,  not  so  much  to  suggest  as 
to  exact  sacrifices,  so  powerfully  brought 
home  as  in  Roman  history.  And,  while 
in  Greece  citizenship  was  ever  restricted, 


the  whole  history  of  Rome  may  be  re¬ 
garded  as  the  history  of  the  progressive 
expansion  of  the  circle  of  citizenship 
from  patricians  to  plebeians,  from 
Romans  to  Italians,  from  Italians  to 
provincials,  until  it  included  the  greater 
portion  of  the  civilized  world. 

When  we  come  to  the  High  School 
period  a  great  change  in  the  method  of 
teaching  takes  place.  The  object  is  no 
longer  merely  to  widen  the  moral  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  pupil,  to  extend  his  moral 
horizon,  to  refine  his  moral  feelings,  but 
to  supply  him  with  a  working  hypothesis 
in  ethics,  with  a  principle — not  a  meta¬ 
physical  one,  but  still  a  unifying  one — 
from  which  all  the  separate  duties  can 
be  derived.  And,  as  in  the  age  of  adoles¬ 
cence,  the  inner  personal  life  of  the  stu¬ 
dent  acquires  a  prominence  which  it 
had  not  before,  the  aim  is  to  exhibit  the 
general  principle  of  ethics  primarily  and 
fundamentally  as  it  applies  in  the  inner 
life  of  the  individual,  to  show  how  the 
strictly  personal  duties  may  be  derived 
from  it,  and  then,  on  the  sure  foundation 
of  the  personal  duties,  to  erect  the  whole 
superstructure  of  the  social  duties.  Or, 
rather,  to  express  my  thought  more 
precisely,  to  take  the  striving  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  soul  after  perfection  as  a  start¬ 
ing-point,  and  then  to  show  how  this 
striving  can  only  be  satisfied,  how  the 
individual  personality  can  only  be  real¬ 
ized,  in  and  through  the  relations  to 
others. 

The  unifying  principle  which  we  adopt 
is  the  principle  of  perfection  or  of  prog¬ 
ress.  The  attempt  is  made  in  this 
course,  after  the  enthusiasm  for  prog¬ 
ress  has  been  inculcated,  by  the  method 
which  I  described  in  my  last  talk,  and 
the  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  human 
progress  has  been  acquired,  to  formulate 
definitely  the  ideal  of  progress  and  to 
mark  out  the  direction  in  which  it  should 
be  achieved.  An  attempt  is  made  to 


T5 


show  that  progress  does  not  consist  in 
the  increase  of  material  goods,  or  ma¬ 
terial  well-being,  or  in  mere  knowledge 
or  technical  skill,  or  in  ease  and  joyous¬ 
ness  of  life.  But  progress  is  explained 
as  centering  pre-eminently  in  the  moral 
relations,  in  so  acting  as  to  diminish  the 
evils  of  the  world — the  evils  of  poverty, 
of  ignorance  and  of  the  anti-social  set  of 
the  will — in  so  acting  ourselves  as  to 
elicit  the  spiritual  possibilities  of  other 
natures ;  the  test  of  right  action  being 
just  this  beneficent  reaction  which  it 

provokes  in  others.  In  this  way,  the  stu- 

■ 

dent  is  led  to  rebuild  anew  his  moral 
world,  to  regard  the  duties  of  the  family, 
of  the  vocations,  the  duties  of  the  citizen 
to  the  State,  the  duties  of  nation  to 
nation,  as  so  many  means  and  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  eliciting  the  hidden  possibili¬ 
ties  of  the  larger  spiritual  life,  and  of 
growing,  as  an  individual,  more  and 
more  into  the  fulness  and  stature  of  the 
spiritual  whole  of  which  he  is  a  mem¬ 
ber.  The  last  outlook  that  is  opened  is 
upon  a  perfect  society,  an  ideal  com¬ 
munity,  of  spiritual  beings,  a  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  a  City  of  the  Light. 

To  accomplish  the  end  here  outlined 
or  indicated  we  train  men  and  women 
who  shall  not  only  have  a  vague  sense 
that  the  world  is  a  moving  procession, 
a  feeling  of  delight  in  the  forward  move¬ 


ment,  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  prog¬ 
ress,  but  shall  also  have  a  clear  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  aims  toward  which  all  this 
progress  should  tend,  and  should  have 
this  last  and  far-reaching  outlook.  It  is 
essential,  of  course,  that  the  teachers 
themselves  should  have  that  outlook. 
The  Ethical  Culture  School  can  only  suc¬ 
ceed  if  its  staff  of  teachers  are  pene¬ 
trated  by  a  deep  spiritual  feeling,  are 
enlightened  by  definite  spiritual  ideas, 
and  have  this  same  outlook  upon  a 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  or  City  of  the 
Light,  upon  a  Temple  of  Humanity  in 
which  the  lives  of  the  pupils  they  train 
shall  be  the  building-stones.  In  the 
business  of  teaching  we  are  apt  to  be 
immersed  in  the  details  and  absorbed  in 
the  technique  of  our  tasks.  We  must 
teach  mathematics  and  science  and 
grammar  and  composition  and  the  like. 
We  must  pay  attention  to  the  separate 
stones  and  see  to  it  that  they  are  prop¬ 
erly  cut  and  squared  and  trimmed.  But 
our  whole  occupation  becomes  futile  un¬ 
less  we  constantly  bear  in  mind  the  place 
these  separate  stones  are  to  fill  in  the 
grand  edifice,  unless  we  have  constantly 
before  our  minds  the  architectural 
sketch,  or  the  vision  of  that  noble 
radiant  temple  which,  by  the  help  of 
these  and  others  like  them,  is  to  be 
slowly  advanced  toward  completeness. 


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